Of the first origin of things, of the first birth, Buddha knew nothing. "When he was asked whether the existence of the world is eternal or non-eternal, he made no reply," because he considered such inquiries of no profit. He starts from the material world and the conscious beings in it. Here he finds all things changing by the law of cause and effect; nothing continues in one stage. Then this reflection came into his mind. Birth exists, and is the cause of decay, disease, and death. Therefore, destroy birth, and the effects of birth are destroyed likewise; and this world, which is but a mass of sorrows culminating in decay and death, will be annihilated.
As of the beginning of existence, so of, the end of existence Buddha knows nothing. He traces the progress of the human being as it develops towards perfection through a series of ever-ascending heavens, until the last and final' heaven is attained. Gradually, by a series of steps, has all imperfection been purified, and man has become perfect, so far as the mind of man can conceive of perfection. And when made perfect, there is no further need for it to be re-born, because no more births could make it more humanly perfect than it is. Therefore it passes into the rest and repose of nirvâna, that transcendental stage of being which overpasses the horizon* of man's conception. What the nature of that state may be Buddha knows not — it is nirvâna. "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man."[1] Beautifully is it described as "the eternal place of bliss, where there is no more sorrow, no more disease, nor old age, nor death." It is the "home of peace," "the other shore of the ocean of existence," the "shore of salvation," the "harbor of refuge," the "mecicine of all evils." The rest and repose of nirvâna may be obtained on earth by the man who attains the ideal holiness. Indeed, Mr. Rhys Davids proposes to translate nirvâna by the word "holiness — holiness, that is, in the Buddhist sense, perfect peace, goodness, and wisdom."[2] Some people, not in harmony with the mind of Buddha, have spoken of nirvâna as though it meant annihilation. But there is no thought of annihilation in the mind of the founder who said, "I devote myself wholly to moral culture, so as to arrive at the highest condition of moral rest, Nirvâna."[3] There can be no thought of the loss of personal being in the place whose four characteristics are "personality, purity, happiness, eternity."[4]
Indeed, the controversy between the Confucians and the Buddhists in China turns upon the belief in a future life as a. motive for virtue, as maybe seen from the biographical section of the history of the Sung dynasty: "The instructions of Confucius include only a single life; they do not reach to the future state, with its illimitable results. His only motive to virtue is the happiness of posterity. The only consequence of vice he names is present suffering. The reward of the good does not go beyond worldly honors. The aims of Buddha, on the other hand, are illimitable. His religion removes care from the heart, and saves men from all danger. Its one sentiment is mercy seeking to save. It speaks of hell to deter from sin; it points to heaven that men may desire its happiness. It exhibits the nirvâna as tire spirit's final refuge, and tells us of a body (dharmakâya) to be possessed under other conditions, long after the present body has passed away."[5]
Thus Buddha taught that the aim of life is perfection, and that rest and repose can only be found in the perfection of the moral and spiritual being. How closely this coincides with the teaching of Christ on this point five hundred years later, will appear from the words, "Be ye perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect," — τἐλειοι, complete, all-embracing, godlike in your charity and love to others, like the Father, who sendeth his rain and maketh his sun to shine both on the evil and the good. Again, "He that is perfect shall be as his master," — κατρτισμένος, fully instructed, well-conditioned, knowing his duty and doing it.[6] So also St. Paul urges men to arrive at the "perfect man" (είς ΰνδρα τέλειον), "to the measure of the stature of Christ's fulness."
It is quite true that Buddha did not give as the standard of ideal perfection "our Father in the heavens," that most touching name by which the early Aryan clan spoke of God, and which reappears in the lan-
- ↑ I Cor. ii. 9.
- ↑ "Buddhism," p. 112; Childers' Pali Dict., "Nibbanam."
- ↑ Catena, p. 183.
- ↑ Letter, Dr. Rost, p. i.
- ↑ "Travels of Fa-hian," introd., p. xxvi. "If we look in the Dhammapada," says Prof. Max Müller, "at every passage where nirvâna is mentioned, there is not one that would require that its meaning should be annihilation; while most, if not all, would become perfectly unintelligible if we assigned to the word nirvâna that meaning."— Buddhaghosha, p. 41.
- ↑ The Buddhistic spirit of this passage was pointed out to the writer by the Veteran scholar, Mr. Bryant Hodgson.
